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All of our journeys begin with the water…

As these religious proceed toward the priesthood, a connection to Genesis and formation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water. God said, “Let there be light…”
— Genesis 1:1-3 (Jerusalem Bible)

Jesuit scholastic Nico Lariosa recently attended the diaconal ordination of 17 men who, if all go well, will soon become priests. Photographing the event, he caught a moment full of poignant meaning, and shared it on social media. We liked it enough to want to share it with you, with Lariosa’s kind permission:

Wrote Nico:

“Yesterday, as 15 Jesuits and 2 Capuchin Franciscans were lying prostrate at the diaconal ordination’s litany of the saints, I saw this boy reach out to the baptismal font. For a Christian observing, the image speaks eloquently of the source of Christian ministry – that the sacraments of service begin in the waters of baptism; and that all vocations in the Church are born and nurtured within the community of the faithful.”

Let us pray for the soul that little explorer who reaches out to the glistening light, and the water, that he may be made wise and wide-open to the love of Christ.

Let us pray for all the little ones who will one day be the keepers of the faith in a difficult society and a darkening, increasingly formless world. Amen.